first birthday party

When it came to planning Rowan's FIRST BIRTHDAY party, I was more than excited to celebrate my favorite day in the history of my life, but I also wanted to keep it personal, low-key, and simple. 

If you already know me, you may have burst out laughing at that last line.  I have definitely been known to let party planning get a little ridiculous/theatrical at times (i.e. vintage dance cards to encourage old-fashioned party mingling... or hand-drawn marauder's map invitations for guests to locate a quidditch field... OR a full-blown murder mystery plot for a 1920s-themed Christmas party... You get the idea.)

​Basically, if there is an over-the-top idea for a party that is completely unnecessary and maybe a touch dweeby, then I probably want to do it. 

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Fast-forward to mom life-- Now I've hit the phase when I should learn to slow down and not theme the crap out of a party and spend weeks scheming those unnecessary details... but... You can take the girl out of Theatre, but you can't take the Theatre out of the girl. Am I right?

But back to mom life-- All of this turns into me starting too many projects and ideas and then stressing out and getting disappointed when I don't have time to get it all done.  It all sounds pretty pathetic to explain, but I just LOVE parties and get really excited about them.  No one is having time to kill over here, so I wanted to keep this one as simple as I could stand for it to be.

Rowan's name is a type of tree, and his favorite animals right now are owls. So I went with a tree-forest-camping theme.  Also. I have an unnecessary amount of woodland-themed party accessories (read: FREE), so we went with it! ALSO, I used to call Rowan "Sprout" when he was in my belly, so the whole plant/tree aspect is special to me.

Invites.

For the invitations, I wanted to create my own, but then found that almost exactly what I was envisioning was already in an Etsy shop, Tranquillina.  They were printable and cheap, yippee! I really wanted envelopes in copper, but I only had some in kraft paper.  So, copper paint + white ink = done!

menu.

Chocolate-Chip Pumpkin Cake
with cream cheese icing

Donuts
blueberry, old fashioned & sour cream

Pumpkin Cupcakes
with cream cheese icing

Caramel Dip 
with apples

Grilled Cheese Bites
cheddar & jack

S'mores Dip
with Reese's cups & graham crackers

Pimento Cheese Dip
with crackers

Fruit & Veggie Platters

Teddy Graham Crackers
because they're cute.

​TRAIL MIX BAR
peanuts, cashews, almonds
sunflower seeds
chocolate chips
chocolate covered almonds
dried apricots, pineapple, cranberries
pretzels
NO raisins. They are from the devil.

Also instead of the cheese dip, I had planned to make this adorable recipe, but that was one of those things that just didn't happen. Let's take a moment of silence for my cutesy pinecone cheese ball which never was.

decorations.

I was mostly recycling the woodland decor that I already had: tree slices, lanterns, wooden utensils, bronze owls, burlap pennant banner, tiny chalk boards, kraft paper table runners, moscow mule mugs, etc.  

I also decorated our chalkboard in 2.1 seconds whilst leaning over the table, so don't judge those lettering skills.​

I wanted to add in some new details in copper and mint.  I used some Target dollar-section (holla!) mint vases and pails for flower arrangements --which the pails actually ended up not holding water (FYI), and I had to insert a glass to hold the water.  Then the Target-person who apparently stalks me knew I needed copper and promptly put every copper party supply out on the shelves last week... so I had no choice but to buy all the plates and wrapping supplies. oopsies.

Then add "robin's egg blue" balloons (because that's the closest to mint we could find), paint some tiny, 50 cent pumpkins copper, and voila!

FLOWERS: coffee break roses, blue thistles, peach hypericum berries, ming fern, and some specialty, mysterious greenery and pine needles from my yard. 
And let's have another moment of silence for the silver brunia balls that the wholesale florist didn't have.

Flower design assistance from my BFF Sarah Woodall. #SarahDoesFlowers

festivities.

Brittny Rene Photography

One thing about hosting our gigantic family at our house is that it's tiny.  Luckily, Zack tore down the pitiful excuse for a back porch built in 1940 and replaced it with a huge deck a few years ago, so we had the party festivities out there. 

We attempted a smash cake, which Rowan is too good for apparently.  Zack was quite disappointed about it, so we tried it again the next day and he did have fun smashing the cake -- but only with a spoon like a civilized human being. Also, the picture of him with the beaming grin is because we asked if we wanted an apple. haha! I mean we wanted a healthy eater, so I'm not sad about it!

Also, I will note that if you make your own "healthy" smash cake for your kiddo, make sure it still turns out light and fluffy.  I'm pretty sure that all the pumpkin in our cake make it too dense to easily smash.  Oh well, I ate all those leftovers for breakfast this week, so who's complaining?

The only other pinteresty thing that I did was to print out Rowan's monthly growing photos.  I used the Walgreens online photo printing site because they do square Instagram prints now, and they happened to have a 50% off coupon on the day of Rowan's birthday... $2.00 for all the prints? HOT DOG!

Oh, and I had to make some highchair decorations, or I would've ruined the party, you guys, ruined. the. party.

Scene 1. Smash Cake. Take 2.

So my cheesy, sentimental gift for Rowan actually did not arrive in time for the party.  We were going to have a big "aww" moment and plant a rowan tree in our yard, but it turns out that optimal planting time is not until early winter, so they couldn't send the tree before then. I'm still not convinced that a rowan tree will survive in the Alabama heat, but we shall see. 

The tree was definitely not missed, because 1. Rowan wasn't going to know what the tree was even about and 2. he was spoiled beyond belief with all the best gifts. 

Wondering what to get for a first birthday party? Try bouncy balls, instruments, riding/push toys, books, puzzles... to just name a few of all the amazing things Ro loved. 

Also, let it be known that he loved the bouncy ball so much that it did not survive the week.  Moment of silence for the popped bouncy ball.

To conclude the party, Rowan played a passionate rendition of Moonlight Sonata followed by Nocturn op.9 No. 2 on the piano from his grandparents.

--Or actually he looked like a tiny, hyper Elton John who forgot how to play piano.

Either way, the piano was the best thing other than how much he smiled and bounced when everyone sang happy birthday to him. 

I used a page of his baby book for a guest book, which not everyone knew about but it was still fun and sweet.  And gosh, I love having witty friends, because some people wrote some hilarious things in there. 

It's sort of my "thing" to edit our sentimental videos to special songs in our life, so I was not about to drop the ball for the most important year!  

​If you have a lot of free time on your hands, you can watch the video below. 

Forget the fact that party planning isn't as stress free as it used to be pre-kiddo...

This is my favorite party we've ever had!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RORO. WE LOVE YOU!

related posts.

• Pregnancy Journal: My Hospital Bag 
• Pregnancy Journal: Preggo with Z-Ro 
• Rowan's Vintage Camping Baby Shower
• A Natural Birth Story: Rowan Arrives